PRESS Pass: Brookings Institution's Martin Indyk

As President Obama begins his second term, he'll have a new cadre of foreign policy leaders in his cabinet. Martin Indyk, author of the new book Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy, believes the president's choices to lead the Defense and State departments indicate his broader agenda abroad.

In the case of former Senator Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary, Indyk believes the president is signaling that "the decade of war is ending." He argues that the "two principal responsibilities" for Hagel will be to responsibly withdraw the troops from Afghanistan and cut the defense budget.

At the State Department, Indyk says Obama’s nominee is a different kind of diplomat than his predecessor. Senator John Kerry's personal relationships with foreign dignitaries will move U.S. foreign relations from "public diplomacy" as practiced by outgoing Secretary Clinton, to "private diplomacy" as Kerry has used during his time as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman.

The former U.S. Ambassador to Israel also acknowledged that the recent narrow re-election of Benjamin Netanyahu gives hope that the Israel-Palestinian peace process "has a chance to breathe again," saying that a center-right coalition government in Israel means their government will be "more willing to engage in making peace."

Watch David's entire interview with Brookings Institution's Martin Indyk above to hear more on the Middle East and how he thinks President Obama should approach foreign policy in a second term.